You could have a 10 or 12 team league and play each other 3 times. However, when that was touted the clubs complained that meant having to play certain teams away from home twice in a season. Then they decided to have to split which causes exactly the same argument.
If a team in 7th position is close enough to a Euro place, why shouldn't they be allowed to chase it down in the last third of the season? That's just stupid. Likewise, our early attempts to do anything of note in the top 6 were laughable. There was no chance of a Euro place, and the team were so disinterested we struggled to even win a game. That wasn't very exciting, either.